Computing devices are becoming ubiquitous tools for personal, business, and social uses. Computing devices are embodied as various electrical devices including, for example, smartphones, smart appliances, computers, consumer electronic devices (e.g., network connected smart thermostats), home appliances (e.g., network connected smart refrigerators), mobile computing nodes, wearable computing nodes (e.g., smart glasses, network connected wristbands that monitor physiological metrics of a user), and other electronic devices including those in the “Internet of Things”. Recently, computing devices have been evolving to include an increasing number and variety of sensors. At the same time, computing devices are increasingly interconnected (e.g., connected with the Internet) and, oftentimes, are kept in an active or powered-on state.
Unfortunately, the inclusion of sensors in various computing devices can pose a security or privacy threat for the end user. For example, malware may be unknowingly installed and executed on the computing device to surreptitiously intercept or monitor sensor data generated by the sensors of the computing device. Such interception or monitoring may be done without the knowledge of the user of the computing device. Additionally, even authorized applications (e.g., social media applications) and hardware of the computing device may utilize the sensors and sensor data of the computing device without the user's knowledge and/or ability to control (e.g., turn off) such usage. Even in those computing devices in which a user can turn off the sensor data stream from a sensor, such functionality may be subject to security attacks.